One Month!

Lilly is technically 4 weeks old today, and I guess we would consider her "one month birthday" to be on the 3rd, but I figured I would go ahead and post while I have a moment!  I cannot believe how quickly the time has already flown!  We have enjoyed getting to know our new girl, and we can't wait to see all the changes to come.  Here's a few highlights:

• Lilly weighs 8 lbs. 15 oz. and is 21 inches long.  She is growing FAST!
• She eats every 3-4 hours and eats A LOT!  Being the neurotic mom I am, I think we are overfeeding her, but who doesn't love a chunky baby, right?! :)
• She sleeps well at night, usually going for about four hours inbetween feedings with the occasional five or six hour stint! 
• Lilly spends her days eating, sleeping, and hanging out.  She is usually a content little baby, and she loves being held.  Due to her being born a few weeks before Christmas, she has seen family often...and therefore been held often! 
• We have recently put her on reflux medicine due to some gagging/choking spells she has on a very regular basis.  We are trying the reflux medicine first to see if it helps before we have to possibly see an ear, nose, and throat specialist. 
• We thought we were being so grown up this time by having her sleep in her crib from day one.  Well that lasted about 2 weeks until she got a little sick and also really started this choking mess.  Since then, she has spent her nights elevated in her bouncy seat right next to my side of the bed.  Her doctor says she should stay there until she is 3 or 4 months old, so I guess we will follow doctor's orders! 
• Lainey loves her little sister and tells her how cute she is every day.  She is such a good helper with a great attitude towards her sister, and I really can't wait to see these two grow into what I hope will be wonderful friends!

Jovan and I are sleep-deprived, but loving every minute.  It is so different this go round.  You know that this too shall pass, and I am trying to soak in every minute of my last baby.  She's already grown and changed so much, and I already tear up at the thought of having to leave this girl to return to a job I am not too fond of these days!  Oh well!  We're just going to live in the minute and love on our sweet one month old baby girl!

And just for fun...here's Lilly and Lainey at one month in the same onesie.  I have been AWFUL at taking pictures of Lilly, and that is definitely a resolution of mine for 2012!

Lilly at one month

Lainey at one month

It's funny, because I don't think these pictures do them justice as to how much they favor each other.  There are times when we think Lilly looks exactly like her big sis!  Obviously Lilly is a better eater than her sister, ha!  Love these girls!!!

Christmas 2011-Christmas Day

Every year Christmas day comes, and the Runyon family has already opened our gifts!  We are notorious for not being able to wait until the actual day and often find ourselves opening our gifts on Christmas Eve.  HOWEVER, this year we actually waited, ha!  Since my sister-in-law's parents came in town, we were forced to wait until the actual day since we were splitting time.  We were able to open Santa's gift first thing in the morning though. (Santa only brings one gift to the Tosic house)


That afternoon we read the Christmas story like we do every year, sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, and opened our gifts.  My parents really outdid themselves this year-they always do, but they really went a little overboard!  I think the commercialism really got to a lot of people this year (my Dad especially) for some reason, and next year we will be forfeitting the gift part and giving to those who need it.  We are truly blessed!

Lilly got these cute "First Holiday" stickers from her "Aunt" Beth

The girls in dresses my Aunt Patty sent them. 

LOVE this girl!

Lainey's present from Nana and Papa--a Barbie bike!!

MORE Barbie stuff!

Barbie Charm School dress--she puts this on EVERY day as soon as she gets home from school.  Hilarious!



Family photo minus Dad...we look a hot mess, ha!

 We had a very Merry Christmas and are looking forward to a fabulous 2012!

Christmas 2011-Christmas Eve

As usual, we had an amazing Christmas.  Seeing as we had a 3 week old, my parents decided to come to our house for the holidays so we wouldn't have to travel.  Bless them!  They arrived on the 23rd, and they just left our house to go home about 15 minutes ago.  Some people would go crazy having their parents stay with them for a week, but I truly enjoy every minute and pretty much cry every time they leave.  I know...weirdo! :)  Anyways...

On Christmas Eve we took Lilly to church for the first time.  Our church had three services on Christmas Eve and the same one on Christmas day.  We decided to go to the 2:30 service on Saturday, and then we headed to my brother and sister-in-law's for dinner with our family and Megan's family.  We had a great dinner followed by some exciting games of Telepictionary and Pit.  We then headed home to make sure our a certain 4 year old's room was clean and that she was getting in bed because Santa doesn't come to a dirty house or a house where kids aren't sleeping, ha!

Lilly's first time at church

Lilly on Christmas Eve

What Lainey did on Christmas Eve :)

Jovan and I with our birthday cake on Christmas Eve

Lainey decided Santa needed cookies and Cuties this year!

We had a great time on Christmas Eve, and I am so grateful to have my parents and brother and sis-in-law so close!

Visiting Santa

We took the girls to see Santa yesterday.  We went to the same Santa we went to last year because he is AMAZING!  I'm pretty sure as long as I have girls that believe in Santa we will track this man down for our visit every year.  He sits there and spends time with each child, and let's be real--he just looks like the real deal.  Both girls cooperated, and Lainey even managed to tell Santa that she wanted a horse for Christmas.  Not really sure where that came from, but he politely told her he could not do that because a horse could not fit on the sleigh...I love this guy!  Now if only he can say the same thing when she starts asking for an iPad, a DS, or things like that! 

We did not want/expect to be in a picture, so you can imagine how excited we were! :)

And just for laughs, here is last year's picture as well.  Love when you can get two years out of an outfit!

Lillian Charlotte

**WARNING--It's a long one!**

We welcomed Lillian Charlotte into our family on December 3rd at 8:19 am weighing an even 8 lbs and measuring 20.5 inches long!  I figured I'd better document the events of the day pretty quickly before my memory starts fading, so here goes...

We woke up early Saturday morning because we had to be at the hospital by 6.  After a quick trip through the McDonald's drive thru to get Jovan some breakfast, we were on our way.  Here I am once we arrived at the hospital.

We headed up to labor and delivery to get prepped for surgery.  I'll spare all the details of what horrible veins I have and how every time I have to get an IV I end up with purple hands and arms a few days later.  Hoping my girls don't have the same issues I have!  Once we got all that working, Jovan and I just basically sat around and waited for our surgery team to get there.  Jovan had to get dressed for surgery as well. :)

At 8:00 we headed back to the operating room.  I had been freaking myself out for the past couple of weeks about the c-section.  With Lainey, I was SO ready for her to get out of me that I really didn't know or care what was going on by the time we had the c-section.  With a scheduled surgery I had been told by several people that it is so different because you are actually aware of what is going on...they were right!  I had a great experience!  We were just talking and laughing and having a good ol time as I lay there sliced open on the table, ha!  We were able to bring in the iPod, so we had our own tunes to groove.  Feel free to judge, but some of our tunes included Justin Bieber's "Baby", Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back", and Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You."  Everyone loved it!

Lilly was born at 8:19 a.m. and I couldn't tell you how long we were actually in there after.  Once we got back to our recovery room, I took a turn for the worse.  Once again...details spared, but I got sick several times.  I spent the rest of the day Saturday completely doped up and not really sure what was going on!  My family came to visit, and I know I talked to people on the phone, and I will apologize for anything I said that day because I honestly do not remember it!  :)

Lainey did come to meet her little sister, and I can vaguely remember the meeting.  At least we have some sweet pictures of them!

Lainey also got a backpack from her little sister filled with all sorts of goodies like coloring books and crayons, candy, nail polish, a tiara, books, and her most favorite gift-a disposable camera to document the day's events. 


The only visitors we had Saturday were my parents and my brother and sis-in-law.  God decided that Lilly needed snow for her birthday, and He gave us plenty of it complete with slippery, nasty roads!  It actually turned out better to not have anyone up there the first day because like I said, I was completely out of it!

Sunday was MUCH better, and I was up walking around and actually coherent.  We had more visitors on Sunday, and I was able to start taking those much needed laps around the post partum floor! I was also able to have Jimmy John's for the first time in 9 months.  My love of Jimmy John's is no secret, nor was the fact that this was the first thing I wanted once Lilly was born.  We even received a Jimmy John's gift card as a baby gift, ha! 

We decided to go home Monday because I was feeling pretty good.  My mom stayed for the entire week, and my dad was here for most of it.  We could not have done it without them!  I seriously have the most selfless parents, and I can only hope I can be for my girls what they have been and continue to be for me. 

It is now almost two weeks since Lilly was born, and we're learning the new norm for us.  We're happily exhausted and equally confused about this whole newborn thing again, but we are extremely happy and feeling blessed beyond what we deserve!